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Zika-related birth defect reported in Georgia, health officials say

A Zika-related birth defect has been documented in Georgia, public health officials said on Tuesday.

No details of the family that was affected were released, officials added. Zika is a mosquito-transmitted viral disease that occurs mostly in the tropics and can cause serious birth defects, though it rarely does much harm to infected adults.

There were 111 travel-related Zika infections in Georgia with seven of them being in pregnant women.

Nancy Nydam, a spokeswoman for the Department of Public Health, said Legionella cases are also on the rise with 126 confirmed or suspected Legionella cases in Georgia in 2016, which is an increase from 38 cases the decade before.

Four employees at the Lockhead Martin Marietta facility were recently confirmed to have Legionnaire’s Disease with public health officials identifying the clusters and outbreaks of the disease most commonly in locations such as hotels, hospitals and nursing homes along with workplaces.

According to health officials, the national outbreak may be caused due to an aging and older U.S. population, which leads to more at-risk individuals due to a more compromised immune system. It could also come from the overall aging of plumbing infrastructure in facilities with large water systems and people inhaling air that contains droplets of water contaminated by the disease.